France C15 Or C15A (Red Network Inverted?)

Hi all - It was suggested I post this stamp here that I recently purchased:

I had the stamp expertised by APS and it came back as C15, which I bought it as (lightly hinged) and also has the mark of Jean-Francois Brun on the back.

But evidently this may really be a C15a exhibiting the red network inverted. Looking for any and all comments.

I just ordered the 2023 Yvert catalogue for France which is supposed to have more information as Scott Classic does not have details, like pics.

Thanks, Ken

You'll find it definitely is C15a in Scott. Yvert Classiques pictures the two states of the burelage/network. Yours is reversed. (Scott calls it "red network inverted.")

This stamp had originally shown up in the long-running "mailbox" thread. There, a point was made about another 50-franc airmail issued at nearly the same time. The 50fr yellow green, C14 in Scott.

Regarding the 50fr yellow green, Sanabria lists the set, of which it is the high value, as issued February 17, 1936, except for the 50fr, which they say was issued in July. (no specific date)

You'll see that Yvert treats the 50fr yellow green separately from the February set, which they consider to be a complete set, without the 50fr. And then the 50fr yellow green is listed as a set of one, on its own.

Thanks Cjd. I am looking forward to getting the Yverts catalogue and learning more.

Since we have started a new thread, thought I would share this again here.

This is how you can visually tell the difference between C15 and C15a.

EXAMPLES:

The burelage leans right, so it has to be C15a (red network inverted).




As opposed to left leaning, which is C15.




John

Yvert lists a print run of 210,000 for the C15 (which includes C15a), and only 118,000 for the C14 50fr yellow green.

C14 has a higher catalogue value, but interestingly, I believe I see C14 selling at prices below C15 here in the midwestern United States, particularly the used examples. C15 is a striking stamp, so that probably explains why it does better as a percentage of catalogue value.

Exactly what drew me to it, and my "collect what you like" attitude.

In the "mailbox" thread when this came up, GeoffHa said,



Le Patrimoine du Timbre-Poste Français (pp. 217, 221) sheds light on the curious near-simultaneous issue of the Sc. C14 green and Sc. C15 "Burelé."

French postal authorities were concerned that the 50F green would be confused with the 85c stamp of the same design. They decided to not issue the C14, and instead worked with the private printers of the Institut de Gravure. Part of the remit was also to have improved security against counterfeiting of such a high value stamp. That got the Sc. 15 "Burelé" rolling into design and production.

Meanwhile, the postal administration started to then worry that if the Sc. 14 were not issued, the 500 examples of Sc. 14 already sent to the UPU might make their way into the philatelic market and then be sold at high prices, creating some scandal. So they then reversed their earlier decision and decided to go ahead and issue the Sc. 14, piles of which were sitting around. By then, so much time had elapsed that it came out 20 days after " Le Burelé" did.

Here is my C14 showing the printing date of 21 December 1935 (compare to the issue date of 30 July 1936).

Thanks, jleb1979. That puts some historical clarity around the timing of the issues.

Ken

That's great information. Thanks.

(Beautiful stamp, by the way.)

Thanks.

Thought I might round out the conversation with this screen capture of a C15 which is to be in the Schuyler Rumsey Westpex auction, the catalog for which recently went live. I wish they gave larger images online, but it is what it is.

Nicely shows the date of printing of the blue color on 15 June 1936.
Blue was also printed on 16 June, but that day some of the sheets with red burelage (which had been printed back on 5 May) were fed in reversed, giving rise to the variant C15a we've been discussing.

The C15 was retired from sale in January 1939, by which time the non-airmail 50 franc Clement Ader had been issued (Sc. 348)

The issues from this period rather highlight the silliness of separating air-mail issues. The South American flight pair of 14 August 1936 were, I suspect, used for air-mail, and the 50 Fr Ader of 16 June 1938, the 50 F Guynemer of 12 October 1940 and the 20 Fr/50 Fr Ader of 24 January 1941 would also have been, despite their not carrying the word "aérienne".

"Sillness of separation " You have to remember during those years ,just collecting airmail stamps was very popular with publishers printing only airmails stamp albums plus we had seperate catalogs being issued for airmail stamps only . Even Chicago had its own stamp club and a societies groups for airmail stamps . The Chicago club lasted into the 1980's and was called the "Jack Knight Stamp Club ". Jack Knight was a early government employee who flew flights in a biplane around the Mid-west part of the U.S.

Air-mail stamps weren't the first philatelic creation, but they were probably the most successful!

Air mail service was a very important part of the evolution of postal systems; offering a vast improvement in the speed in which specific items in the mail stream could move.

Air mail stamp served the purpose of paying for the increased cost of the expediated service and added a means of verifying airmail service was being specified.
Don

Ah, however did Great Britain limp through a hundred years without them.